WOW!!!!! This has been an incredible nine months! Last September we opened the doors to mockingbird moon -- a Bentonville Arkansas -- brick and mortar -- LYS (Local Yarn Shop) "for knitters and creative spirits."
All we can say is a giant and whole-hearted thank you. Thank you to our wonderful friends (formerly known as customers) who have supported and encouraged us over the last nine months. We couldn't have made it this far without you. Thank you to the wonderful instructors who have generously shared their expertise and teaching skills, friendship and passion for this wonderful thing called the creative spirit -- and yarn. (Spouses and Significant Others beware -- many of us are conspiring as to how we might persuade you to let us start our own alpaca and/or sheep farms:-D. )
Our mission? Our inspiration? Why are we here?
We can all get yarn on the internet, right? I've done it myself -- but ONLY because there was not a LYS within reasonable driving distance from my home. More than a "great deal" on the internet, I longed to have a LYS where I could go and hang out, meet and talk FACE TO FACE with other like-minded spirits, listen to some good tunes while doing so, and maybe have a cup of coffee or tea while planning my next creation or picking up a new technique. Having moved here from Michigan five years earlier, I knew this is where I would spend the rest of my life -- my husband and I fell in love with Arkansas in 2006. It lacked only one thing -- the all-important LYS. I gave it five years hoping someone -- ANYONE!!! would do something about this obvious void. As I hit 50 years of age, my daughters persuaded me that WE should be the ones to do it. (I've always loved the Gandhi quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" -- that along with Winston Churchill's "Never give up.") Game on!
When you drop in the shop, you'll notice an old black-and-white photo of my mom mounted near the cash register. She passed away about 9 years ago and my brother had this photo blown up for me as a gift. My mom was 14 or 15 when the picture was taken sometime back in the 1940's (during WWII or shortly thereafter). Her hand is raised in a military salute and she borrowed someone's uniform jacket for the photo. Growing up in Detroit we did not have much money so my brother and I frequented the local "thrift stores" with her in search of bargains -- especially 10 cent skeins of WOOL yarn. She would sometimes break down and buy acrylic if the deal was especially good but mostly she sought out 100% wool -- that was "the good stuff." That's one of the reasons our shop focuses on the natural fibers (wool, alpaca, cotton, bamboo, silk, and linen): over the years it is the natural fibers that have survived the test of time (-- trust me, I had some of the old acrylic sweaters and they felt like a brillo pad while the wool survived quite nicely). My mom wasn't a fancy knitter -- more of a basic knitter -- and her crazy color wool afghans (random colors pieced together from the thrift store wool yarn) are a treasure in our homes. As an added FYI: the wicker chairs in our shop are another junk-shop find of my mom's -- they are from "Mr. H's Resale Shop" in Detroit. Mr. H's is probably long-gone but the chairs survive. (The third chair of this three-some is in my bedroom at home.) Drop in, have a sit, and do a bit of stitching. You will meet some wonderful people and probably make a few new friends. Beware -- it can be addictive...
